Brad Bird brings 30-year passion project Ray Gunn to London
Ray Gunn, the retro-futuristic caper director Brad Bird has chased for 30 years, debuted at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2026, Deadline. The wait was long. It is Bird's fifth animated feature, Variety.
The film is a sci-fi noir, a blend of science fiction and noir, the shadowy detective stories built around crime and moral compromise. It is set in Metropia, an imaginary city of mile-high buildings described by Bird in an interview with Animation World Network. Netflix has called it a retro-futuristic caper, Tudum. It runs about two hours, Variety.
At the centre is an investigation into multiple murders linked to a starlet styled as a femme fatale, the classic mysterious woman of old crime films. That case drives the story through Metropia's towers, clubs and back streets. The tone pairs flying-car futurism with the behaviour of a 1940s police procedural.
Sam Rockwell voices Ray Gunn, a smooth-talking private investigator, Variety. His partner is Eye-Ra, a weary alien cyclops voiced by Tom Waits. Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova, the starlet at the heart of the murder inquiry, with the casting confirmed by Netflix ahead of the Busan International Film Festival, Netflix.
Ray Gunn is Bird's own animated film creation, which he is directing for Skydance Animation, Skydance. It was produced by Skydance Animation for Netflix, Animation World Network. It will stream on Netflix on Dec. 18, Tudum.
The festival is screening the film as part of its 2026 programme, BFI. Bird, a multi-Academy Award winner, will also take part in a Screen Talk to discuss his Oscar and BAFTA-winning career, BFI.
What makes this stand out for general audiences is the combination. A favourite detective pairing, reimagined in animation, lets Bird stage a murder mystery on a scale live action could not easily realise.
